573 entries categorized "Nuclear Weapons / Nuclear Power"

May 09, 2016

NPR reports at a rare political event in Pyongyang, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un told party members that the country would not carry out a nuclear strike unless its sovereignty is violated. This comes after the country has carried out a series of provocative weapons tests. During his remarks at the Workers Party Conference, Kim vowed to push forward with nuclear development despite international pressure. NPR's Elise Hu tells our Newscast unit that this is "the highest level political convening in North Korea and the first of its kind since 1980."

April 25, 2016

Reuters reports North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile test is "extremely troubling" and the United Nations urges Pyongyang to "cease any further provocative action," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday. North Korea said the missile test it conducted on Saturday was a "great success" that provided "one more means for powerful nuclear attack. The U.N. Security Council on Sunday condemned the test and expressed serious concern that such activities contributed to North Korea's development of nuclear weapons delivery systems. The submarine-launched ballistic missile test was the latest in a string of recent demonstrations of military might that began in January with North Korea's fourth nuclear test and included the launch of a long-range rocket in February.

April 18, 2016

The Washington Post reports North Korea appears to be preparing to conduct another nuclear test, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday, citing signs of increased movement near the North’s nuclear test site. With a much-hyped congress of the communist Workers’ Party to be held early next month, Kim Jong Un appears to be trying to burnish his credentials, and analysts say that a fifth nuclear test would be a sure-fire way to do that. “Recently, signs of preparations for a fifth nuclear test have been detected,” Park said during a meeting with her aides Monday.

April 05, 2016

The New York Times reports South Korea has determined that North Korea is capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on its medium-range Rodong ballistic missile, which could reach all of the South and most of Japan, a senior government official said on Tuesday. The government’s assessment, shared in a background briefing with representatives of foreign news media here, followed a recent claim by North Korea that it had “standardized” nuclear warheads small enough to be carried by ballistic missiles. Until Tuesday, South Korean government officials, like most of their American counterparts, had played down that claim.

April 01, 2016

Reuters reports North Korea will pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile program in defiance of the United States and its allies, a top Pyongyang envoy said on Friday, adding that a state of "semi-war" now existed on the divided Korean peninsula. So Se Pyong, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, denounced the huge joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises taking place which he said were aimed at "decapitation of the supreme leadership of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)" and conquering Pyongyang. North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket in February. The South Korean military said on Friday that North Korea had fired a missile into the sea off its east coast.

The New York Times reports President Obama gathered more than 50 world leaders here on Thursday to discuss one of his favorite topics: locking down nuclear weapons. But it was Obama’s meeting with one of the less friendly of those leaders, President Xi Jinping of China, that captured most of the attention. The leaders announced that the United States and China would sign a climate change accord later in April, a show of unity on an issue that has become a bright spot in the tangled relationship between the two countries. But they quickly moved on to more contentious issues, with Obama pressing Mr. Xi on China’s construction of military facilities in the South China Sea, actions that a White House official said belied a pledge the Chinese president had made last fall not to militarize those waters.

March 18, 2016

The Washington Post reports the U.S. Air Force has launched an investigation into illicit, off-duty drug use by troops who protect its nuclear weapons, senior service officials said Friday, the latest black eye for a nuclear force that has suffered several scandals in recent years. The probe centers on 14 enlisted troops between the ranks of airman and airman first class who serve with the 90th Security Forces Group at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., said Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command. He said the investigation focuses on “illegal drug activity,” but would not say whether the allegation focuses on use, sales or both. He also would not say what kind of drugs are involved, or whether the investigation could implicate more personnel.

March 15, 2016

The Associated Press reports Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday that he had deliberately negotiated the wording of the latest United Nations resolution restraining his country's nuclear program to ensure that the test-firing of nuclear-capable Iranian missiles would be legal. Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a speech at the Australian National University that Security Council Resolution 2231, which was adopted after the Iranian nuclear deal was signed last year, did not bar Iran from testing the type of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that it launched last week.

March 14, 2016

Reuters reports the United States on Monday vowed to continue pushing for United Nations Security Council action on Iran's recent ballistic missile tests and accused Russia of looking for reasons not to respond to Iranian violations of a U.N. resolution. "This merits a council response," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation Security Council convened at Washington's request. "Russia seems to be lawyering its way to look for reasons not to act," she said. "We're not going to give up at the Security Council, no matter the quibbling that we heard today about this and that."

March 02, 2016

The Associated Press reports the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades, reflecting growing anger at Pyongyang's latest nuclear test and rocket launch in defiance of a ban on all nuclear-related activity. The United States and China, North Korea's traditional ally, spent seven weeks negotiating the new sanctions, which include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang; and expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in "illicit activities." The U.S., its Western allies and Japan pressed for new sanctions that went beyond the North's nuclear and missile programs but China was reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of the neighboring country and cause its economy to collapse.

February 25, 2016

The New York Times reports the United States and China have agreed to stiffen international financial sanctions against North Korea in a major shift for Beijing, which has long been unwilling to further isolate its intransigent ally. Whether the development, confirmed Thursday by diplomats at the United Nations Security Council, means that China will take steps to prevent North Korean ships from bringing coal and iron ore to Chinese ports remains unclear. The United States had pushed for a partial ban on permitting North Korean ships to enter ports around the world.

February 17, 2016

Reuters reports Iraq is searching for "highly dangerous" radioactive material stolen last year, according to an environment ministry document and seven security, environmental and provincial officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State. The material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford (WFT.N), the document obtained by Reuters showed and officials confirmed.

The New York Times reports in the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed and led to a military conflict, according to a coming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. The plan, code-named Nitro Zeus, was devised to disable Iran’s air defenses, communications systems and crucial parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled.

February 09, 2016

BBC News reports the US will help South Korea deploy an advanced missile defense system as soon as possible, officials from the Pentagon have said. They say the shield will help South Korea offset the growing threat posed by North Korea following its launch of a long-range rocket on Sunday. North Korea put a satellite or some other space device into orbit at the launch, US officials said on Monday. But it used the test as cover for a long-range missile launch, they say. Officials in Pyongyang for their part are adamant that the test was part of the country's peaceful space program.

Reuters reports North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test last month and launched a long-range rocket on Saturday, could begin to recover plutonium from a restarted nuclear reactor within weeks, the director of U.S. National Intelligence said on Tuesday. James Clapper said that in 2013, following its third nuclear test, North Korea announced its intention to “refurbish and restart” facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, to include the uranium enrichment facility and its graphite-moderated plutonium production reactor shut down in 2007.

February 08, 2016

The Washington Post reports the United Nations on Sunday condemned North Korea’s satellite launch as a “dangerous and serious” violation of international restrictions, and threatened new sanctions aimed at dissuading the rogue nation from building missiles capable of delivering weapons against distant adversaries, including the United States. The launch followed North Korea’s detonation of a nuclear device last month, putting new pressure on the United States and its threatened ally South Korea to take steps that could include deploying a missile defense capability that is firmly opposed by China.

January 28, 2016

Reuters reports the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would broaden sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, human rights record and cyber activities, amid growing international concern over Pyongyang's weapons program. The committee passed the measure by unanimous voice vote and members said they expected it would be approved by the full Senate within weeks, and, eventually, signed into law by President Barack Obama. Republican Senator Bob Corker, the panel's chairman, said the full Senate was due to begin considering the legislation during the week of Feb. 8.

January 27, 2016

The New York Times reports Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that if China failed to do more to curb North Korea’s enhanced nuclear capacity, Washington would take steps that China has strongly opposed, including deploying defense systems to protect American allies in Asia. “This is a threat the United States must take extremely seriously,” Kerry said of North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal at a news conference with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi. “The United States will take all necessary steps to protect our people and allies. We don’t want to heighten security tensions. But we won’t walk away from any options.”

January 19, 2016

The Associated Press reports Iran successfully transferred some of the billions of dollars' worth of frozen overseas assets following the implementation of the nuclear deal with world powers, the head of the country's central bank said Tuesday. But ordinary Iranians are still waiting to see how their daily lives will improve and how fast Iranian companies will gain access to financial markets worldwide. Credit cards still don't work in the Islamic Republic and its ATM machines remain separated from the rest of the world. That is not likely to change soon as many of the world's major financial services companies operate in the United States.

January 15, 2016

Reuters reports North Korea on Saturday called for the conclusion of a peace treaty with the United States and a halt to U.S. military exercises with South Korea to end the North's nuclear tests. The isolated state has long sought a peace treaty with the United States, as well as an end to the exercises by South Korea and the United States, which has about 28,500 troops based in South Korea. "Still valid are all proposals for preserving peace and stability on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia including the ones for ceasing our nuclear test and the conclusion of a peace treaty in return for U.S. halt to joint military exercises," North Korea's official KCNA news agency cited a spokesman for the country's foreign ministry as saying early on Saturday.

January 14, 2016

The New York Times reports twenty nations with significant atomic stockpiles or nuclear power plants have no government regulations requiring minimal protection of those facilities against cyberattacks, according to a study by the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The findings build on growing concerns that a cyberattack could be the easiest and most effective way to take over a nuclear power plant and sabotage it, or to disable defenses that are used to protect nuclear material from theft. The countries on the list include Argentina, China, Egypt, Israel, Mexico and North Korea.

January 13, 2016

Reuters reports Iran has removed the calandria, or central vessel, of its nuclear reactor at Arak, and it will be filled with concrete within hours, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. "Just yesterday, the foreign minister (of Iran) reported to me that the calandria of the plutonium nuclear reactor is now out and in the next hours it will be filled with concrete and destroyed," Kerry said. The removal of the calandria is a key part of last year's Iran nuclear deal.

January 12, 2016

The New York Times reports while the North Koreans have been thinking big — claiming to have built a hydrogen bomb, a boast that experts dismiss as wildly exaggerated — the Energy Department and the Pentagon have been readying a line of weapons that head in the opposite direction. The build-it-smaller approach has set off a philosophical clash among those in Washington who think about the unthinkable. Obama has long advocated a “nuclear-free world.” His lieutenants argue that modernizing existing weapons can produce a smaller and more reliable arsenal while making their use less likely because of the threat they can pose.

The New York Times reports an Iranian nuclear official on Tuesday denied a report that technicians had removed the core of the country’s only heavy-water reactor and poured concrete into the cavity, a final step toward the completion of the historic nuclear agreement in July and the lifting of sanctions on Iran. The official, Ali Asghar Zarean, Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, told state television that a report about the Arak reactor by the semiofficial Fars News Agency on Monday was baseless. He added that Iran planned to sign an agreement next week with China to modify the reactor, which is capable of producing the plutonium needed to build an atomic weapon.

January 11, 2016

BBC News reports Iran has removed the core of its Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor and filled it with cement, according to the country's official news agency Fars. The fate of the reactor was one of the toughest sticking points in Iran's long nuclear negotiations last year. Under the terms of the deal, Iran agreed the heavy-water reactor would be reconfigured so it was not capable of yielding material for a nuclear weapon. The removal of the core is one of the final steps required by the deal. It will bring Iran closer to the relief from economic sanctions negotiated in exchange for changes to its nuclear industry.

January 07, 2016

Al Jazeera reports the UN Security Council has vowed to pursue new sanctions against North Korea after the reclusive country said on Wednesday it had successfully conducted a test on its first hydrogen bomb. In an emergency session, the council strongly condemned the nuclear test and said it would begin working immediately on a new resolution against Pyongyang, whose nuclear test claim sparked a global outcry even as some officials and experts voiced doubts over its validity. The test was in violation of previous resolutions and "a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist", said the council, which started imposing economic and commercial sanctions on North Korea a decade ago because of its nuclear activity.

January 06, 2016

NBC News reports North Korea announced Wednesday that it successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test, a claim that if true would mark a huge jump in Kim Jong Un's quest to improve its still-limited nuclear arsenal. The announcement came after South Korea reported a seismic event resembling an earthquake 30 miles from the Punggye-ri site where the desperately poor and reclusive North has conducted nuclear tests in the past. However, South Korean officials and some experts questioned whether the explosion was indeed a full-fledged test of a hydrogen device.

January 05, 2016

Reuters reports Iran unveiled a new underground missile depot on Tuesday with state television showing Emad precision-guided missiles in store which the United States says can take a nuclear warhead and violate a 2010 U.N. Security Council resolution. The defiant move to publicize Iran's missile program seemed certain to irk the United States as it plans to dismantle nearly all sanctions on Iran under a breakthrough nuclear agreement. Tasnim news agency and state television video said the underground facility, situated in mountains and run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was inaugurated by the speaker of parliament, Ali Larijani. Release of one-minute video followed footage of another underground missile depot last October.

December 10, 2015

The Associated Press reports North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared on Thursday to claim the country has developed a hydrogen bomb, a step up from the less powerful atomic bomb, but outside experts were skeptical. Kim made the comments as he toured the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, which marks the feats of his father Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011 and his grandfather, state founder and eternal president, Kim Il-sung, the official KCNA news agency said. The work of Kim Il-Sung "turned the DPRK into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," KCNA quoted Kim Jong-un as saying. DPRK is the acronym for the isolated North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

November 24, 2015

Reuters reports Iran expects a deal it reached with world powers in July, under which sanctions will be lifted in return for it scaling down its nuclear program, to be implemented at the start of next year, Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday. "We expect early January," Araqchi told reporters after meeting the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is tasked with verifying whether Iran is keeping its commitments under the deal. Iran is holding parliamentary elections on Feb. 26 and diplomats say Tehran has been working hard to fulfill its commitments under the nuclear deal before that date.

November 23, 2015

The Washington Post reports after significantly cutting the size of its military in recent years, the United Kingdom was forced to call on France and Canada to help look for a Russian sub they believed was patrolling off the Scottish coast, according to a report in the Telegraph. According to the report, the Russian sub was spotted more than a week ago and has yet to be found amid fears that it might be trying to spy on the UK’s Trident program — a sub-based nuclear warhead delivery system stationed in Scotland. The French support for the hunt — an Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft — has being searching for the Russian sub, along with a British frigate and attack class submarine, for the past 10 days, according to the report. Over the weekend a Canadian aircraft joined the search.

November 13, 2015

The New York Times reports Iran’s president was sharply criticized by hard-liners during Friday Prayer and again on television on Friday in what is becoming an increasingly tense standoff over the future of Iran after the signing of the nuclear deal during the summer. The president, Hassan Rouhani, is insisting that the nuclear agreement can be the start of new relations with the Islamic republic’s traditional ideological enemy, the United States. He repeated on Thursday that each country could even open an embassy in the other if the United States would apologize for mistakes it had made in the 36 years since the Iranian revolution.

November 12, 2015

The New York Times reports the Kremlin’s chief spokesman has confirmed that a report broadcast on Russian television this week revealed the design of a secret nuclear weapon delivery system: a drone submarine that could attack coastlines. Russian officials said the revelation of the submarine, which has not yet been produced, was accidental. But it came to light in the Russian news media in a way that suggested that the Kremlin wanted the West to know. Such a submarine design had been conceived decades ago, independent Russian military commentators said, but it had not been revealed until now. It would function as a long-range torpedo and would avoid missile defenses by traveling under the ocean’s surface.

November 10, 2015

Reuters reports Iran has stopped dismantling centrifuges in two uranium enrichment plants, state media reported on Tuesday, days after conservative lawmakers complained to President Hassan Rouhani that the process was too rushed. Last week, Iran announced it had begun shutting down inactive centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordow plants under the terms of a deal struck with world powers in July that limits its nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions. Iran's hardliners continue to resist and undermine the nuclear deal, which was forged by moderates they oppose and which they see as a capitulation to the West. "The (dismantling) process stopped with a warning," Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the ISNA student news agency.

November 09, 2015

The New York Times reports President Obama on Monday said it was time for him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to move beyond their “strong disagreement” over the Iran nuclear deal and work together on confronting Iranian misbehavior and bolstering Israel’s security, as the two leaders had their first encounter since their feud over the agreement brought their relationship to a bitter low. “It’s no secret that the prime minister and I have had a strong disagreement on this narrow issue,” said Obama, seated beside Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the start of the meeting, their first in more than a year. “But we don’t have a disagreement on the need to making sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, and we don’t have a disagreement about us blunting destabilizing activities in Iran that may be taking place,” he added. “And so, we’re going to be looking to make sure we find common ground there.”

November 04, 2015

Reuters reports as Iran's government promises a new age of prosperity after sanctions, many Iranians are hoping for the best. But the security establishment, with an eye to its political survival, is very publicly preparing for the worst. The armed forces have loudly advertised developments to Iran's missile deterrent and other defense capabilities, proclaiming they are still prepared for an attack by the Islamic Republic's enemies. The increase in martial messaging, which analysts say is aimed both at Iran's enemies abroad and political moderates at home, has alarmed Israel and Gulf Arab countries which are wary of Iran's ambitions in the Middle East.

November 02, 2015

The New York Times reports Iran has started decommissioning the first of thousands of centrifuges used for enriching uranium as part of its commitments under the nuclear deal reached with global powers, the head of Iran’s nuclear energy program was quoted as saying during a visit to Japan on Monday. The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, told the Kyodo News agency that Iran had started preliminary work, referring to centrifuges and other steps. The entire process will “take some time,” said Salehi, who is also a vice president, a former foreign minister and a member of the nuclear negotiating team.

October 22, 2015

Reuters reports the United States, Britain, France and Germany sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council's Iran sanctions committee on Wednesday notifying it of Tehran's recent missile test and demanded action in response to what they said was a violation. The letter, which was sent to the committee by the United States on behalf of the four countries, said the launch was in breach of Security Council resolutions and reiterated that the ballistic missile was "inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon." "We trust that this information will assist the Committee in its responsibility to examine and take appropriate action in response to violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions," said the letter, which was seen by Reuters.

October 21, 2015

Al Jazeera reports Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has endorsed a landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers, but warned against "ambiguities" in the agreement. Khamenei, who has the final say on all major Iranian policies, backed the deal in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani that was read on state TV on Wednesday. Until now he had publicly declined to approve or reject the deal while expressing support for Iran's negotiators.

October 19, 2015

BBC News reports almost 50 years after four nuclear bombs fell on the Spanish coast after two U.S. military planes collided, American officials have signed a deal to clean up contaminated land. None of the bombs detonated in January 1966, but three fell around Palomares and a fourth was found on the sea bed. Highly toxic plutonium was spread over a 490-acre area. On a visit to Madrid, Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to finalize a deal on disposing of contaminated soil. Under the agreement in principle, signed by Kerry and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, the U.S. will remove the soil at Palomares to a site in the U.S.

Reuters reports Iran's nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on Monday he expected a deal with six world powers on shrinking Tehran's atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief to be implemented by year-end. "Hopefully before the end of this year certainly we would have the implementation day," Araqchi told reporters after meeting senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France in Vienna. The United States and the European Union took formal legal steps on Sunday that will lift sanctions once Iran meets certain conditions such as reducing the number of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, and its enriched uranium stockpile.

October 16, 2015

Reuters reports the United States has confirmed that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon in "clear violation" of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. "The United States is deeply concerned about Iran's recent ballistic missile launch," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said in a statement. "After reviewing the available information, we can confirm that Iran launched on Oct. 10 a medium-range ballistic missile inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon," she said. "This was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929."

The New York Times reports Iran has honored a Thursday deadline for supplying information to the International Atomic Energy Agency for assessing its past nuclear work, including activities that might have been military-related, the agency reported. Meeting the deadline was another in a series of steps that Iran promised to take as part of the nuclear agreement reached in July with six world powers, including the United States. The agreement will relax sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program to ensure it is peaceful.

The Associated Press reports that amid fears of an atomic arms race in the Middle East, a senior United Arab Emirates official told a top U.S. lawmaker that it too might seek the right to enrich uranium that Iran has asserted under the recently signed nuclear deal. The landmark Iran accord to curb its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic sanctions relief allows Tehran to enrich uranium. In barely noticed testimony last month, Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the UAE's ambassador in Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, had informed him in a telephone call that the country no longer felt bound by its previous nuclear agreement with the United States.

October 15, 2015

The New York Times reports the Obama administration is exploring a deal with Pakistan that would limit the scope of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, the fastest-growing on earth. The discussions are the first in the decade since one of the founders of its nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was caught selling the country’s nuclear technology around the world. The talks are being held in advance of the arrival of Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in Washington next week. They focus on American concern that Pakistan might be on the verge of deploying a small tactical nuclear weapon — explicitly modeled on weapons the United States put in Europe during the Cold War to deter a Soviet invasion — that would be far harder to secure than the country’s arsenal of larger weapons.

October 14, 2015

The New York Times reports the final step for Iran to start carrying out the nuclear agreement was completed on Wednesday, after an oversight panel ratified the bill passed by Parliament supporting the deal with six world powers. The ratification by the veto-wielding panel, the 12-member Guardian Council, made within 36 hours after the Parliament accepted the details of the agreement, now clears the way for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to start dismantling thousands of centrifuges and redesign a heavy water reactor into a much less a dangerous light water reactor. It also needs to take several other measures. In exchange, as soon as the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies the steps, sanctions against Iran will be lifted.

October 13, 2015

NPR reports Iran's parliament voted Tuesday to support the implementation of the nuclear deal struck by world powers in Vienna in July. The deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, would limit Iran's nuclear development in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. It must still be reviewed by a group of senior clerics in Iran — the 12-member Guardian Council — who could decide to send the bill back to parliament for further discussion, The Associated Press reports. President Hassan Rouhani's administration hailed Tuesday's vote in support of the plan as a "historic decision."

October 07, 2015

The Associated Press reports over the pulsating beat at an exclusive nightclub, the arms smuggler made his pitch to a client: 2.5 million euros for enough radioactive cesium to contaminate several city blocks. It was earlier this year, and the two men were plotting their deal at an unlikely spot: the terrace of Cocos Prive, a dance club and sushi bar in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. "You can make a dirty bomb, which would be perfect for the Islamic State," the smuggler said. "If you have a connection with them, the business will go smoothly." But the smuggler, Valentin Grossu, wasn't sure the client was for real - and he was right to worry. The client was an informant, and it took some 20 meetings to persuade Grossu that he was an authentic Islamic State representative. Eventually, the two men exchanged cash for a sample in a sting operation that landed Grossu in jail.

September 21, 2015

BBC News reports the International Atomic Energy Agency says significant progress has been made in its probe into the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program. IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano said Iran had handed over environmental samples from the Parchin military site, which he was able to visit on Sunday. But Amano cautioned that "much work" remained before the investigation could be completed by December's deadline. Western powers suspect that nuclear weapons research took place at Parchin. But Iran has denied this and insists that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. The completion of the IAEA's investigation is crucial to the implementation of July's comprehensive agreement between six world powers and Iran, under which the country will limit its sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions.

September 17, 2015

Politico reports the Senate’s last showdown on Iran ended as expected Thursday, as Democrats blocked two separate measures from Republicans meant to unravel President Barack Obama’s nuclear accord with Tehran. First, Democrats filibustered a plan from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would require Iran to recognize Israel and release U.S. prisoners under Iranian custody before U.S. sanctions would be lifted. The tally was 53-45.